Institute for Transportation

About the research

The Iowa Automated Permitting System (IAPS) is an online oversize/overweight/over dimension permitting system for the motor carrier industry based on the Bentley SuperLoad® product. IAPS began production operations in December 2013. As of 2017, among the 100,000 permits issued by the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) annually, about half of them were issued automatically. In May 2019, Governor Reynolds signed Senate File 629, an Act relating to permits for vehicles of excessive size and weight, including vehicles transporting raw forest products, and providing for fees. The Iowa Legislature requested that the Iowa DOT report on the IAPS to allow electronic processing of oversize/overweight (OS/OW) permits for non-primary roads.This includes the application, review, routing, approval, and payment(s) to the appropriate jurisdiction(s).

The Institute for Transportation at Iowa State University is tasked with preparing the report to legislature regarding implementation options of performing OS/OW permitting for local public authorities (LPA) in IAPS. The objectives of this project include:

• Review the current IAPS system capabilities
• Develop implementation options for consideration by the Iowa DOT
• Identify the barriers, possible solutions, and required resources to implement the options proposed